A new SCOM 2007 targeting poster has been posted to help everyone understand targeting.
To sum it up
Target all new monitors at Windows Server or one of the targets that Microsoft has created such as IIS or SQL Servers.
Set the rule to be disabled by default.
Create an override that will enable the rule only for the computers or group of computers you want the monitor to run on.
Here are a couple of KB articles that describe this.
Below is a script that I wrote to monitor file count in a directory.
To Implement this please reference my earlier post on how to setup a Script-Based monitor. https://www.scom2k7.com/create-a-script-based-unit-monitor-in-opsmgr2007-via-the-gui/
In the Parameters: Dialog box you will need to specify a directory path in quotes then a space and the type in the number of files you what to have in your directory before you want to alarm.
For Unhealthy Expression: Property[@Name=’State’] Equals BAD
For Healthy Expresion: Property[@Name=’State’] Equals GOOD
Dim oAPI, oBag, objFSO, objFldr, bSendError, strOut
bSendError = False
Set oAPI = CreateObject("MOM.ScriptAPI")
Set oBag = oAPI.CreateTypedPropertyBag(StateDataType)
Set eBag = oAPI.CreateTypedPropertyBag(StateDataType)
Set oArgs = WScript.Arguments
If oArgs.Count < 2 Then
strReturn = "Script aborted. Not enough parameters provided"
Call eBag.AddValue("State","BAD")
Call eBag.AddValue("ret",strReturn)
Call oAPI.Return(eBag)
WScript.Quit -1
End If
strOut = checkfolder(oArgs(0),int(oArgs(1)))
If bSendError Then
strReturn = strOut
Call oBag.AddValue("State","BAD")
Call oBag.AddValue("ret2", objFldr.Files.Count)
Call oBag.AddValue("ret",strReturn)
Else
'WScript.Echo("GOOD "& vbNewLine & strOut)
Call oBag.AddValue("State","GOOD")
End If
if 0 <> Err.number Then
strReturn = "An Error occured: " & Err.Description
Call eBag.AddValue("State","BAD")
Call eBag.AddValue("ret",strReturn)
Call oAPI.Return(eBag)
else
Call oAPI.Return(oBag)
end if
Function checkfolder(strfldname,numberfiles)
Set objFSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFldr=objFSO.GetFolder(strfldname)
If objFldr.Files.Count > numberfiles Then
checkfolder = numberfiles
bSendError = True
End If
End Function
Recent Microsoft product releases which will be covered in detail during MMS 2008 include:
System Center Operations Manager 2007
System Center Configuration Manager 2007
System Center Data Protection Manager 2007
System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007
System Center Essentials 2007
System Center Remote Operations Manager 2007
System Center Capacity Planner 2007
Desktop Optimization Pack for SA
Windows Server Update Services 3.0
In addition during the event there will be early looks at some releases due to ship during the coming year, including:
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 SP1
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2
System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1
System Center Mobile Device Manager
MMS 2008 is the ideal opportunity to come listen to the product teams describe these new releases, try out the new products and discuss real-world deployment experiences with leading industry experts and your peers within the IT industry.
Microsoft ForefrontWindows Server Update Services Group Policy WS-Management / WinRM
WMI Microsoft Windows PowerShell
Guide includes the following topics:
– Overview of model-based design
– Service models and understanding relationships
– Health models
– How Operations Manager implements models
– Discovery
– Changes between 2005 and 2007
– Customizing the out-of-the-box models
SP1 RC1 Can be downloaded at http://connect.microsoft.com/
New Features
The new features that are in Operations Manager 2007 SP1 are:
· Improved performance and reliability when working with alerts, overrides, and searches.
· In all Alert views, performance has been increased through better fetching and yields alert row selection that is three times quicker. Actions and reports are fetched in the background, which further improves performance. Alert knowledge that is displayed in the Alert Details pane can be shown or hidden according to the user’s preference.
· Operations Manager 2007 advanced search has been improved by enabling the ability to search across monitors and rules by their overrides.
· Support for the discovery and monitoring of both SNMP v1 and SNMP v2 network devices. Users can select which SNMP Community Version to search for in the Discovery Wizard.
· Support for exporting Operations Manager 2007 diagrams to Microsoft Visio VDX file format. Note that the Visio button is located on the toolbar when in a diagram view. Diagram layouts can now be saved and will be remembered when the diagram view is selected again.
· Support for copying and pasting (CTRL+C and CTRL+V) from the Alert details pane.
Setup and Recovery
The following are improvements in setup and recovery:
· To make backup and recovery easier, setup in Operations Manager 2007 SP1 starts the Secure Storage Backup Wizard at the end of setup, by default, to back up the RMS encryption keys. This is the same command-line tool used in the original version of Operations Manager 2007, but with an easier-to-use wizard interface. The wizard is actually started by using the command-line version of the tool when no parameters are passed to the tool or it is started from Windows Explorer. The Secure Storage Backup tool is located on the installation media in the Support Tools directory. The Secure Storage Backup Wizard can be started according to the user’s preference.
· To make the recovery of a clustered RMS easier, Operations Manager 2007 SP1 enables the repromotion of the RMS cluster to the RMS role after it is fixed. This addresses the situation where a clustered RMS has failed and another management server in the management group has been promoted into the RMS role.
User Interface and Experience
The following are improvements in user interface and experience:
· To make the creation of new management packs easier, Operations Manager 2007 SP1 introduces the ability to copy views from any existing management pack to an unsealed management pack. This is done in the Monitoring view. For example, if you have created a management pack for SQL Server overrides and want to use one of the SQL Server management pack views in the SQL Server overrides management pack, you would simply select the desired view, right-click to copy it, and then paste it into the target management pack folder.
· In all Alert views in the Monitoring space and in the Web console, Operations Manager 2007 SP1 ensures that the Repeat Count value is incremented correctly.
· After you have created an override for any management pack object, you can look at the summary of overrides for the object type in the Overrides Summary box. Operations Manager 2007 SP1 ensures that the description of the override target is complete. For example, if you create an override for Logical Disk Free Space for the C:\ of Server1, the summary will display ‘server1/c:’
Core Product
The following are improvements in the core Operations Manager 2007 product:
· SP1 ensures that when agents are uninstalled from a computer in the Administration space\Device Management container\Agent Managed node of the Operations Console, that they are also removed from the computer views in the Monitoring space.
· Scripts can now be used for diagnostic tasks.
· View names, data and, display strings in the Operations Console that have been collected from computers running different language versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems are displayed correctly.
Reporting
The following are improvements to reporting:
· When you are in a report, you can now choose to publish the report by selecting Publish from the File menu. This will allow you to publish reports to multiple locations, such as Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services Web sites.
Web Console
The following are improvements in the Operations Manager 2007 Web console:
· The Operations Manager Web console provides access to performance data. Users can then select specific counters to graph. In Operations Manager 2007 SP1, it is now possible to construct a filter for the desired performance counters to ease searching and navigation. This ability is available when a performance view is selected and displays in the Performance legend pane. The search options available are All items, Items in the Chart, Items not in the Chart, and Items by text search.
· The Web console has been further improved so that the Favorite Reports container is now available in My Workspace.
Audit Collection Services (ACS)
The following are improvements for ACS:
· New discoveries and views have been added. These features detect and indicate which agents and servers are ACS-forwarding enabled.
· There are more monitors and alert generating rules to track the health state of the ACS collectors. For example, Operations Manager 2007 SP1 includes the ability to watch the DB Queue % full level against default thresholds, such as the back-off threshold or disconnect threshold.
· The ACS forwarder feature is now supported on the Management and Gateway Server roles. The ACS Forwarder is disabled by default. When enabled, it will allow the inclusion of security auditing data for these server roles.
· When using ACS, one of the most common tasks is to enable forwarding on ACS agents. In Operations Manager 2007 SP1, an Operations Manager Command Shell script can be used to enable forwarding for entire computer groups, thereby greatly easing the deployment and administration of ACS.
Agentless Exception Monitoring (AEM)
AEM now provides an improved appearance and functionality of AEM reports.
More at What’s New in Operations Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 http://connect.microsoft.com/SystemCenter/content/content.aspx?ContentID=6859
The Release Candidate version of the Authoring Console was released today on Microsoft Connect.
The new version of the Authoring Console can be downloaded at http://connect.microsoft.com/
Description
This package contains both the 32 and 64 bit versions of the Release Candidate for the OpsMgr 2007 Management Pack Authoring Console. This console is designed to be used by partners developing Management Packs and by advanced users developing custom MPs.
Create a “Timed Script 2 State Monitor”.
Set your target as “Windows Server 2003”. Set the Monitor to disabled.
Use this script below (Set the processname = to the process you want to monitor)
————————————————-
On Error Resume Next
Dim oAPI, oBag
Set oAPI = CreateObject(“MOM.ScriptAPI”)Set oBag = oAPI.CreateTypedPropertyBag(StateDataType)
strComputer = “.”processname = “AeXNSAgent.exe” ‘Process name here
Set objWMIService = GetObject(“winmgmts:” _ & “{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\” &
strComputer & “\root\cimv2”)
strQuery = “Select * from Win32_Process Where Name = ‘” & ProcessName & “‘”Set colProcesses = objWMIService.ExecQuery (strQuery)
If colProcesses.Count = 0 Then
Call oBag.AddValue(“State”,”BAD”)Else Call oBag.AddValue(“State”,”GOOD”)
End If
Call oAPI.Return(oBag)
Operations Manager 2007 SP1 RC1 is set to be released on Monday or Tuesday next week.
This RC1 will be fully supported by Microsoft Professional Support Services and should be used in production
The Watchanator is a tool that was developed to populate your dynamic computer groups in System Center Operations Manager 2007 with the associated Health Service (Agent) watchers.
The reason you would want to populate your groups with the Health Service (Agent) watchers is to receive heartbeat (up/down) alerts for your servers.
Setup of the Watchanator.
Run the Watchanator on a scheduled task on the RMS server daily. Now any changes that happen to groups that start with and underscore; watchers for those groups will be automatically updated.
Watchenator Download Link https://www.scom2k7.com/downloads/Watchanator2.zip
There is a lot confusion on how SCOM heartbeats work so I am going to try to explain. First In SCOM there are really only two important pieces or entities.
This first is the Windows Server entity which encompasses everything about a server except heartbeat.
The windows server entity looks like this
The second important entity is the Heartbeat.
The heartbeat or agent watcher entity looks like this.
So when you are creating a group of servers that you want to monitor you would search for Entity and then you would include both Windows Server and the Heartbeat entity (AKA Agent Watcher).
Click Add to add the Windows Server and the Agent Watcher to the group
Now when you create a subscription to this group you will get alerts for everything related to the server and the hearbeats.